Part 5, It's a cold, cold world and you can never truly prepare.

We love snow, there I said it. I would live to regret those words.
Our Real Estate Agent said they didn't really get that much snow up there anymore, our Insurance agent said the same thing. Again and again we heard that story. We were disappointed after all, we love snow, we missed it in Delaware. I still have fond memories of the Blizzard of '78, (I was much much younger)
We were still living in Delaware, travelling back and forth, bringing many truck loads of stuff each time. We decided that Thanksgiving would be great at the new house. Mom and I and the kids got there the week before, it started snowing and didn't stop until mid February. The most snow they have had in years evidently.
Meanwhile we were warm and cozy in our new house, still travelling back and forth to Delaware. We spent Christmas in Delaware.
When we got back to Wellsboro, it continued to snow. And then we got our first Gas bill, that was an eye opener. We had been used to electric heat, and had always heard how much better gas heat was. It was much more expensive than I realized. We hadn't factored in double utilities in our plans. The solution, lower the thermostat and heat more with the wood stove, after all that was what it was for. One part of the house is nice and toasty, one part refrigerator like.
It's ok, we can adjust, we are the new pioneers. Then the wood began to run out, the cold wasn't as much fun and we were tired. Bryan still splits his weekends between Delaware and Pennsylvania.
In early February we began to run out of wood, easy enough, call for more. Problem, not many people have cord wood that is seasoned. I was finally able to get 2 cords. Well that is what I was charged a lot for, we are still not sure we got what we paid for. Not only was this wood expensive, I am still not sure what kind it is, and why it is so difficult to burn. But, we are Pioneers and we will survive.
Next year we will plan better and be a little more prepared. We hope.

Part 4 continued

We had a 5 hour drive home, we talked, and talked and thought and thought. It wasn't the right time, we had a timeline, do we sell our house first and hope we don't lose out on this property, do we buy this one do the work we need to do, move in and then fix our house and sell, can we afford 2 mortgages, can we get a second mortgage and on and on it went.
When we got home, our house awaited us, the air conditioner died while we were away, my mother and children were sweltering hot and miserable. We talked about the house the farm the land the town, we did a lot more talking. I emailed the real estate agent just to see if there were any indoor pictures, he sent them to us. It looked good. We decided to go back up and see the inside, needless to say we had our offer in within a couple weeks. It turns out we could get a second mortgage, we could afford it and the rest of the plans would just have to be rethought.
We closed on the house October 10th, the leaves were turning, the farm was beautiful, the town was welcoming and we were happy.
And then came Winter.......